Visible loose-leaf device



' March 12, 1929. J, L, ARFIELD 1,705,287

VISIBLE LOOSE LEAF DEVICE Fi e uz- 2 1927 s Sheets-Sheet 1 mmvron vJAMES L.GARF|ELD .y 122's aiiorneys March 12, 1929. J. 1.. GARFIELDVISIBLE LOOSE LEAF DEVICE Filed 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. JAMES L.GARFIELD by his aZZax-nqya I J. L. GARFI'ELD 1,705,287

March 12, 1929.

. VISIBLE LOOSE LEAF osvrcs v Filed Aug. 25, 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet 3IIWE/VTOR JAMES L .GARFIELD y izz's aiiorvzeya Patented Mar. 12, 1929.

PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES LYON GARFIELD, OF DBEXEL HILL, PENNSYLVANIA.

VISIBLE LOOSE-LEAF DEVICE. 7

Application filed August 25. 1927.

This invention relatesto loose-leaf devices such as loose-leaf binders,card indexes or the like in which the sheets or cards are clamped at oneside in vertically overlapping relation with both sides of each sheet orcard accessible for entries. This invention is particularly useful inloose-leaf account lodgers used in machine posting.

One object of the invention is the provision of a loose-leaf sheet whichis adapted to be added to other like sheets and to automatically spaceitself in overlapped relation and to keep that relation without thesupport of the panel or other holding means, even if the sheets are putthrough a regular typewriter as a group. Another object of the inventionis to provlde a visible loose-leaf side-hold panel in which a sheet maybe readilyremoved or inserted at any point in a group of sheets Withoutd1sar- 2o ranging the other sheets. Another ob ect of the invention isto provide a flat loose-leaf visible ledger composed of panels each ofwhich can be put in a fiat typewriter and the sheets typed withoutremoval from the panel. A further object of the invention is themounting of these side-hold panels themselves in horizontal overlappedrelation thus giving immediate visibility to all thesheets in the wholedevice. Other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the artafter reading the following description.

In the following specification it should be understood that the wordsheet includes paper, card or any other form of flexible sheet material,and Where in the claims the Word book is used it should be understoodthat any type of loose-leaf device including blnders and card indexesare intended to be included.

In the drawings I Fig. 1 is a view showing a book embodying theinvention opened out, certain portions of the sheets and panels beingbroken away;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the central lower portion of the bookshown in Fig. 1

Fig. 3 is an elevation of one end of the book when closed; 7

Fig. 4 is an exploded View in perspective showing part of one panel;

Fig. 5 is a perspective of a portion of two sheets showing the manner ofassembling one sheet above the other; while Fig. 6 is an end elevationof a modified form of clamp.

In visible loose-leaf devices of the type to free for insertion orremoval.

Serial No. 215,437.

which this invention relates, it is necessary.

that the sheets be individually capable of ready removal from andinsertion in their place in the book. According to the invention eachsheet 10 has a single tongue or lip 11 near the lower left-hand corner,which tongue is preferably formed as asingle lobe facing toward theupper edge of the sheeti. e., with the line joining the base pointsparallel to the lower edge of the sheet. Each sheet is adapt: ed to beinserted behind the lip of the sheet below for the purpose of obtainingthe overlap and nesting the cards together. The lip being near the loweredge of the sheet, the degree of vertical overlap is only a small partof height of the sheet.

For the purpose of aligning the sheets I prefer to form a corrugation orcorrugations such as a shallow groove 01' depressionl2 running from topto bottom of each sheet near its left edge. B y hot-pressing this intoshape the sheet will hold it permanently. This serves to assist injustifying the sheets yetleaves them It is also desirable to give theleft edge portion lt of the sheet beyond the groove a downward tendencyand the lip 11, which can be located in the groove 12, an upwardtendency. -The lower left-hand corner 15 of each sheet, namely, the oneadjacent the lip 11 is rounded for the purpose of assisting in theassembling of the sheets, especially when a sheet is to be inserted inthe middle of a group already aligned. The purpose of the downwardinclination of this edge portion 14 is to assist the rounded corner 15in leading under the lip 11 of the sheet be.- low. The edge portion 14having a perma nent downward tendency the corner'15 of the sheet beinginserted will be led down under the lip 11 with a certainty neverheretofore attained. Thus, when a sheet is to be inserted in the middleof a group of sheets already aligned, the new sheet is slipped under thesheet above it until the lower edge of the sheet above rests in the lip11 of the new sheet. The new sheet is then slid to the left until itscurved corner rides underthe lip and against one base point of the lipbelow, after which the curved corner of the new sheet pushes that sheetand all above it up until the sheets are properly spaced. The groovesthen come into alignment with each other, and the new sheet is in place.A group of sheets thus ask sembled can be manipulated as a separate,unit, even grasped in the hand and run through a regular typewriter forthe purpose of typingheadi-ngseto, without the sheets getting out ofalignment.

The sheets are mounted in a panel composed of a clamp and a back 16hingedly attached to the clamp as by cloth strips 17 embracing thefolded edge 18 of the lower clan iping bar 19. This clamping bar 19 andthe cooperating upper clamping bar 2t)- may be made of sheet metal andfastened together by a series of hinge lugs 21 and a pintl'e 22 as shownFigs. -1- to 4. The clamp is of the tongue. and groove-Variety, a tongue23 on the upper clamping bargripping the sheetsagainstthelowerclamping-bar. This tongue 23 is formed by rolling thefree longitudinal edge-of the upper bar in the form ofa rigid fiathollow tube, spaced from the hinge knuckles a distance about'equal tothe Width of the edge portion 14 of the sheets. If desired additionalrigidity can be given to the upper clamping bar by putting inside thefolded tube thus formed at the outer edge of the bar, a strip 24 ofspring metal which is bowed downwardly at the middle, thus preventingthe upper clampingbar from graduallybecoming'bowed up as a result of thepressure of the sheets in the binder.

Forthepurposeof holding the clamp closed a sliding clip 25 is providedat each end of the upper clamping bar'20. One arm of each clip issecured within one end of the tongue of the upper bar by any suitablemeans. The free arm of the clip is spaced at such a distance from thesecuned arm that when the clampis closed and the clip is pushed into thetube formed by the tongue-23' the free arm engagesthe outer surface ofthe lower clamping bar wand-holds the-two bars tightly together as shownin Fig.- 2. 7 "When the clips are pulled out-the clamping bars will beopened to a convenientangle by coiledsprings 26, placed at intervals onthe rod 10 between the hinge knuckles of the clamping-bars.

The lower clamping bar is preferably formecbwith a depression therein toreceive the tongue 28 of the upper clamping bar; This-formationis-obtained' by the outer folded edge 18 above ref-erredto and by anangled strip 27 riveted or otherwise fastened on top of tlie lowerclamping bar adjacent the hinge knuckles. This strip, is ofsuch a widththat the surface of the lower clamping bar proper between the strip 27and the folded edge 18 forms a depression adapted to receive the tongue23 of the upper clamping bar. The corrugation or groove 12 in the sheetsare adapted to fit into this depression in the lower clamping bar andthe tongue on the upper clainpingbar is adapted to grip the sheets ontop when it is desired to bind the sheets in po sition. This angledstrip 27 has an upturned edge 28 adjacent the hinge knuckles extendingfor the full length of'the panel, this edge serving as a registry edgeassisting the depression in the lower clamping bar to align thesheetsproperly when put into. the panel. It will be noted that with theconstruction of paneland sheet described, the sheet will fallautomatically intoproper alignment and push to the. left until the leftedge of the sheet touches theregistry edge 28 of the angled strip 27 Theedge portion 14 of the sheets overlies-the angled-strip 27 when thesheet is in position, but that angled strip is so low that this edgeportion is not grippedthe gripping pressure of the entire clamp beingconcentrated at the tongue 28; The angled strip 27 can be omitted ifdesired without departing from my invention.

I prefer to; attach to the clamping bar a back16 onwhich the sheets mayrest, this back being made of any suitable material such as cardboard.In the example illustrated in the drawings, the right edge of this backis foldedupon itself'foriningaguiding edge 30 for the right hand edgesof the sheets. It will be obvious that a glance down the-right side ofthis back will show whether or not the sheets are in proper alignmentand that sincethe back is hinged to the clamp it can be swung out oftheway when handling-of the sheets requn'es it. This edge has another 1111-portant function in that when a: sheet or group of sheets 1s beingremoved from the panel this right edge assists inholding in alignmentthose sheets which are not beingremoved. B havin the back hin ed to theclamp. by the cloth strips 17 already mentioned, the backs of the sheetsarea-ccessi-ble and can be written orrty-ped upon at will ina flatbedtypewriter as well: as-the frontswi-thout-removing the sheetsfromthepanel. V

A; 1nodi'fied form of clamp is shown in- Fig. 61in whichthe coiledsprings 26 are done away with. In this structure the upper andlowerclamping bars 35,, are joinedby a-spri-ng back; 31 whose normalposition isthe open one shown in the drawing. With this structure aslightly different; lower clampingbar- 32 can be used which isbent insuch a manner as to e-lin'iinate the necessity for the angled strip 27the spring back 31 being of such a size as to still prevent any clampingaction on the edge portion 14" of the sheets. It should be understoodthat theclamp may be located at the right side of the sheets if desired.3

When a book of greater capacity than one panelis desired a cover canbeemployed with a series of panels hingedlymounted in this cover in amanner which will now be described; Forthe purpose ofmoun-tingeach panelthe cover is equipped with a pair of hooks ea at the top a-ndbottonredges of the binder facin toward each oth'erandadapted to hook into theend hin-ge knuckles of the clampingbar the pintle 22-"of the clampingbar being short enough to permit the enter hooks 34 is rigidly mountedin the cover but the other hook is held by tension spring means topermit insertion in and removal of the panel from the cover. The hooksare spaced apart left and right a distance a little more than the widthof the clamping bar, this overlapping relation being clearly shown inFig. 3. It will be observed that by assembling the panels in this mannerthe clamping bars'lie substantially fiat with their thick portionspartly in line with each other rather than on top of each other.Furthermore, this construction makes visible the right-hand lower cornerof each sheet in every panel. The

' cover of course is wide enough to afford protection for all thepanels.

I claim:

1. A loose leaf sheet having a corrugation formed vertically across itat one side and a lip near said side, the base line of said lip beingsubstantially at right angles to said cor-. rugation.

2. A loose leaf sheet having a hot-pressed groove extending across itnear the left edge in combination with a lip in said groove near thelower left-hand corner of the sheet facing the upper edge of said sheet.

3. A loose leaf sheet having a curved corner, and a groove extendingfrom said corner to the vertically adjacent corner in combination with alip located Wholly within said groove adapted to hold a similar sheet inoverlapped relation longitudinally of the groove.

4. A loose leaf sheet having its lower lefthand corner curved, apermanent groove extending vertically across said sheet at the left sidein combination with a lip located wholly within said groove and adjacentsaid curved corner, having its base line parallel to the lower edge ofsaid sheet, said lip having a slight permanent upward bend substantiallyas described.

5. In a loose leaf device, a panel comprising a clamp in combinationwith a back hinged to said clamp, said clamp being adapted to align theleft edges of the sheets and said back being adapted to align the rightedges of the sheets.

6. In a loose leaf device, a panel comprising a clamp, a back hingedthereto adapted to hold the right edges of the sheets in alignment, saidclamp having a tongue and groove adapted to grip overlapped sheets andhaving a left edge adapted to hold the left edge of said sheets inregister, substantially as described.

7 In a loose leaf book, a cover, a series of panels hingedly mounted inoverlapped relation therein, each panel comprising a clamp adapted togrip a series of vertically overlapped sheets, and a back hinged to saidclamp and adapted to support said sheets and keep the right edgesthereof in alignment, substantially as described.

8. In a loose leaf device, a panel having a clamp comprising a rigidgrooved lower clamping bar and a rigid upper clamping bar fitting saidgroove, clips adapted to hold said clamping bars in closed relation anda back hinged to said clamp adapted to support the sheets in the clampand to hold their right edges in register, substantially as described.

9. In a loose leaf device, a panel having an upper clamping bar, havinga folded outer longitudinal edge thereon, a flat spring strip carriedwithin said folded edge and clips carried in the ends of said foldededge, in combination with a lower clamping bar, grooved to receive thefolded edge of said upper clamping bar, and adapted to be engaged bysaid clips.

10. In a loose leaf device, a panel having an upper clamping bar, havinga folded outer edge, means carried by said upper clamping bar to engagea lower clamping bar, and a lower clamping bar grooved to receive thefolded edge of said upper clamping bar, in combination with a backhinged to said lower clamping bar, a folded outer edge on said back, andsheets adapted to be aligned by said lower clamping bar and said back,and to be clamped in by said clamping bars with a portion of each sheetvisible.

11. A loose leaf book, comprising a cover in combination with aplurality of panels hingedly mounted in said cover in overlappingrelation from left to right, and sheets in said panels mounted invertically overlapping relation,'each panel comprising a clamp of thetongue and groove type and a back hinged to said clamp adapted to keepthe right edges of the sheets in alignment.

12. A loose leaf book, comprising a cover in combination with aplurality of panels hingedly mounted in said cover in overlappingrelation from left to right, and sheets in said panels mounted invertically overlapping relation, each panel comprising a clamp of thetongue and groove type and a back hinged to said clamp adapted to keepthe right edges of the sheets in alignment, said sheets each having anear at one side determining the overlap and a vertical corrugation insaid sheet at the same side, as and for the purposes described.

13. In a loose leaf binder, a plurality of sheets in overlappingrelation lengthwise of the binder, in comblnation with a binding clamphaving a tongue and groove by which said sheets are clamped at theirsides.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to thls specification.

JAMES LYON GARFIELD.

